When someone changes a name for whatever reason this causes a challenge for family historians and may be the cause of brickwalls. Our speaker, Ian Waller's talk was very interesting and informative as he explained, with examples, some of the reasons for name changes and how to deal with them.
Ian suggested several reasons for a name change such as: marriage or re-marriage, desertion from the Military, immigrants wanting to integrate, and offenders needing to hide their crimanal record.
Ian gave some useful tips about how the change can be discovered by comparing parish records and family papers such as wills, deed polls, alias names, and newspaper reports. People often used their ‘Nicknames’ throughout life until no one knew them by any other name. To add to the mix are spelling variations, especially to surnames, and to further muddy the waters the practise, in many families, of handing down parents Christian names to children.
Next Meeting
Friday 9th October 2018
My ancestors are still revolting
by David Wood